Monday, August 14, 2006

Perception Management

Remember, good patriots, we are at war with Islam, Socialism, Communism, drugs, crime, illegal immigration, Gays, labor unions, liberal university professors, peace activists, environmentalists, Anti-Semites, secular humanists, and all those who pose a threat to the United States. Each of these groups shares culpability for the terrorism which has killed several thousand of US, British, Spanish, and Israeli citizens since 2001. They are a cancer upon the American Way and must be excised. Freedom and liberty will prevail despite their onslaught of evil.

Suspension of civil liberties, concentration of power into the hands of the Executive branch, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocents civilians, collective punishment of millions through wanton destruction of infrastructure, widespread dissemination of depleted uranium, reduction of wasteful spending on “useless eaters” via massive cuts in entitlement spending, ongoing ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, torture, denial of justice to “enemy combatants”, massive tax cuts to the wealthy, obscene increases in defense spending, propaganda blitzes to keep the public believing horrendous lies, preemptive war, reduced government restriction of corporate exploitation of humans and the environment, and continued neocolonial expansion are all essential to the United States fulfilling its Manifest Destiny and ending the terrorist threat. Remember, they hate our freedom.

A pleasant fiction indeed for the United States’ ruling elite and their loyal supporters who violently reject challenges to their hubristic and fanatical devotion to American Exceptionalism and entitlement....

In totalitarian societies where there's a Ministry of Truth, propaganda doesn't really try to control your thoughts. It just gives you the party line. It says, "Here's the official doctrine; don't disobey and you won't get in trouble. What you think is not of great importance to anyone. If you get out of line we'll do something to you because we have force."

Democratic societies can't work like that, because the state is much more limited in its capacity to control behavior by force. Since the voice of the people is allowed to speak out, those in power better control what that voice says--in other words, control what people think. One of the ways to do this is to create political debate that appears to embrace many opinions, but actually stays within very narrow margins. You have to make sure that both sides in the debate accept certain assumptions--and that those assumptions are the basis of the propaganda system. As long as everyone accepts the propaganda system, the debate is permissible....

The New York Times reported today that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence is “developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations” in an effort “to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries.”

...According to the New York Times, “one of the military units assigned to carry out the policies of the Office of Strategic Influence” is the U.S. Army’s Psychological Operations Command (PSYOPS). The Times doesn’t mention, however, that PSYOPS has been accused of operating domestically as recently as the Kosovo war.

In addition, the Pentagon’s restrictive press policies throughout the war in Afghanistan have been an ongoing problem. Most recently, Washington Post reporter Doug Struck claims that U.S. soldiers threatened to shoot him if he proceeded with an attempt to investigate a site where civilians had been killed; Struck has stated that for him, the central question raised by the incident is whether the Pentagon is trying to “cover up” its actions and why it won’t “allow access by reporters to determine what they're doing here in Afghanistan.”

Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people evenknow exists. Two months before al-Haideri took thelie-detector test, the Pentagon had secretly awardedhim a $16 million contract to target Iraq and otheradversaries with propaganda. One of the most powerfulpeople in Washington, Rendon is a leader in thestrategic field known as "perception management,"manipulating information -- and, by extension, thenews media -- to achieve the desired result. His firm,the Rendon Group, has made millions off governmentcontracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA tohelp "create the conditions for the removal of Husseinfrom power." Working under this extraordinary transferof secret authority, Rendon assembled a group ofanti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name-- the Iraqi National Congress -- and served as theirmedia guru and "senior adviser" as they set out toengineer an uprising against Saddam. It was as ifPresident John F. Kennedy had outsourced the Bay ofPigs operation to the advertising and public-relationsfirm of J. Walter Thompson....

...Never before in history had such an extensivesecret network been established to shape the entireworld's perception of a war. "It was not just badintelligence -- it was an orchestrated effort," saysSam Gardner, a retired Air Force colonel who hastaught strategy and military operations at theNational War College. "It began before the war, was amajor effort during the war and continues aspost-conflict distortions."

...According to a secret Pentagon report personallyapproved by Rumsfeld in October 2003 and obtained byRolling Stone, the Strategic Command is authorized toengage in "military deception" -- defined as"presenting false information, images or statements."The seventy-four-page document, titled "InformationOperations Roadmap," also calls for psychologicaloperations to be launched over radio, television, cellphones and "emerging technologies" such as theInternet.

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About

This blog has become a place where I post articles that I find related to global warming - causes and effects, as well as a few other topics - related or not.

Jellyfish are like poster-boys of global warming changes - jellyfish are one species of animal that are doing very well. The increased acidity of the oceans, warmer waters, the decrease in predators as fish and other wildlife decline have all favored jellyfish. They seem to thrive on the fertilizers that people have been washing into the seas. Most animals do not.

I also like to post discoveries - especially discoveries that are being made out in space as people are able to see farther and farther galaxies and nebulas and supernovas. Even though I don't think that people will ever go live any of those places - I just like knowing that they are out there. It's part of keeping in mind that the earth and it's inhabitants are such a small part of what is going on in the universe.

I have another blog with posts on art and artists - it's called M'S IMPRESSIONS.